File:The history of mankind (1896) (14740780406).jpg

Identifier: historyofmankind01ratz (find matches)
Title: The history of mankind
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Ratzel, Friedrich, 1844-1904 Butler, Arthur John, 1844-1910
Subjects: Ethnology Anthropology
Publisher: London, Macmillan and co., ltd. New York, The Macmillan co.
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Wellesley College Library

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well known. In thethird place comes the chief article of real agriculture, the taro plant. It andthe bread-fruit together have made life almost too easy in those parts. Thesago-palm extends from the west as far as Melanesia ; a great part of the popu-lation of Xew Guinea is dependent on it. Thus, in spite of their wide distribution, almost all the inhabitants of thecentral Pacific have the more important conditions of life in common. If to thiswe add the common possession of a mass of ethnographic characteristics we shall seethat, in spite of significant racial differences, Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesiaform a single ethnographical domain. Islands of their nature make theirinhabitants seamen and wanderers. Accordingly we have here a region ofextensive colonisation, and we find settlements from one group of races in thedistrict of another ; though, by a curious contrast, in countries like New Guineaor New Zealand, where there is such ample room for extension in the interior, the
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Taro (Caladium esculentum)—one-half natural size. THE HISTORY OF MANKIND people stick, in the great majority of cases, to the coast. Implements and customsconnected with seafaring and fishing show a general agreement. They must all dowithout iron, and consequently have much skill in the working of stone, wood, andshells. In weaving they have attained a high level ; the loom has spread fromthe west, while in the cast and south they manufacture bark and bast. Thefew domestic animals, the usual fruits of the field, and the intoxicating kava or ava,are found throughout all three districts. In the social life the preponderance ofthe tribe or commune over the family is more pronounced than perhaps anywhereelse; while in the realm of religious conceptions there has arisen, out of a largenumber of ideas common to all Polynesia, one of the most complete mythologicalsystems owned by any primitive race, which, with its luxuriance of legend, hasoverspread this vast area, and parts yet more remo

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